Nurses Week - Celebrating IU Health nurses

National Nurses Week begins on May 6 and ends on May 12, Florence Nightingale's birthday. It is a time set aside to honor nurses who work tirelessly to achieve a healthier community.

Please help us show appreciation for IU Health's dedicated and highly skilled nurses as we shine the spotlight on some of the best in these videos and articles below.

Intensive care nurse awarded for service that rewards her daily - She’s been a critical care nurse for more than 30 years. This dedicated caregiver recently received a scholarship for an essay she wrote about life during the pandemic.

From the Philippines to IU Health: This nurse is living her American dream - Raised in the Philippines, Ana Mendiola knew she wanted to come to America and be a nurse. Now, she is one of many international nurses to be welcomed by IU Health in light of the national nursing shortage.

As days turn into months, nurse’s intensive care is intentional care - They have shared a number of holidays in the hospital ward and now this nurse and patient are preparing for Easter with a focus on their shared faith.

From anxious PICU parent to skilled PICU nurse - Shakiyla Rogers went to nursing school after her once-tiny preemie came home from the hospital. Now that little guy has started kindergarten.

Surgeon submits surprise compliment for nurse - Sydney Slattery is a registered nurse at IU Health Saxony–soon to be IU Health Fishers, working in orthopedics. She recently received her second DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses. This award honors the compassion and care bedside nurses provide their patients every day.
Dr. Leonard Buller, an orthopedic surgeon at the hospital, decided to submit a surprise compliment for Slattery to recognize her excellent work.

Where there is hope, there is healing - “It is the most rewarding work I have done in my 20 years as a nurse,” says Megan Shupe, MSN, RN, CEN, SANE-A, on her work with the Center of Hope. “Patients are grateful. It is just a different experience than I have had in nursing.”

Ball nurse accepted into hospital's residency program - Damien Sighaka is a nurse at IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital. Originally from Cameroon, Damien graduated from medical school in Romania before moving to the United States to pursue medical residency. For the last ten years he has worked to overcome various hurdles that kept him from his goal. “I did apply to a few [residency] programs… but my number one choice was to stay right here,” said Damien, who recently matched with Ball Memorial’s internal medicine residency program. “I got this opportunity ten years after starting down this road. When you do something hard, you collect the reward afterward.”

Nurse is met with IU Health values while onboarding - Shelby Cordova joined IU Health Saxony—soon to be IU Health Fishers—in November 2022, shortly after making the trek from Arizona to Indiana with her family a month earlier.
Without knowing anyone at the hospital, Cordova, a marriage family therapist and registered nurse, began the onboarding process to join the Adult Surgical Step-down unit. Since she began the process, team members have been extremely kind and open, and Cordova has been able to easily get along with her unit.

Nurse finds her dream team in the emergency department - Hannah Kalk: “The ED is not a place you can be on your own. You have to rely on other people. If you are trying to do it by yourself, you’re probably going to drown.”

Egg prices gone up? Guess how much one egg cost this infusion nurse - As we watch the price of eggs go up, up, up, this infusion nurse tells how her chicken raising adventure is paying off.

Riley emergency nurse answers the call - When kids suffer trauma, Aaron Puntarelli and the Riley team are there to help the patients and their parents through it.

Nurse saves husband’s life: ‘He is definitely a walking miracle’ - As the nation stood by helplessly witnessing the collapse of Buffalo Bills' Damar Hamlin, one Indianapolis woman knew the feeling of urgency. Brittany Fields, a nursing professional development educator at IU Health West Hospital is grateful that she received on-the-job training in CPR. She never dreamed she'd need to use it to save the life of her 35-year-old husband.

He moved from the operations team to bedside nursing - Scott Garrard had degrees in management and health administration before deciding a good dose of clinical care would help him grow as a leader.